There is often a strange mystique around certain cities such as Casablanca, Istanbul, and Lisbon. Maybe this is because of the roll they played during the Second World War: neutral places where spies, diplomats and others from warring counties could meet in secret.

Further north one finds another such city: Stockholm. Many persons were drawn here also during the war to meet discreetly at restaurants and in parks. Microfilms were hidden in the heels of shoes. Envelopes were discreetly exchanged. The Swedish intelligence service was under much pressure to keep up with all these covert activities.

For those who are fascinated by this exciting period of history, you can now find the espionage court protocols (Avdelningen för spionmål)) from the Stockholm city court for the years 1939 to 1946 in ArkivDigital. To find these records, enter “spion” in the search box. One can find notes such as these in the records as shown in the above image.

On Monday, the 30th of November 1942 at 6:50 in the evening, Swedish citizen Director John Helge Walter was taken into custody on Vasagatan outside the Hotel Continental…. since it had been established that Director Walter had repeatedly visited the British naval captain, Henry Denhem at his residence, 46 Riddargatan.”

As one reads further one discovers that Director Walter was searched at the station and 20,000 Swedish kronor in cash was found in one of his pant pockets plus more cash in his briefcase. In his wallet two typed questionnaires in English were found. The image below shows some of the English questions.